TURIN, Italy—CNH Industrial N.V., producer of the Case, New Holland, Iveco and other brands of agricultural machinery and vehicles, recently singled out Group Michelin and Pirelli Tyre S.p.A. for recognition during its annual supplier awards ceremony.
Michelin Agriculture earned CNH's Best Supplier Award in recognition of its “active demand management,” while Pirelli was honored for two sustainability projects related to the use of biomass in energy generation and for its natural rubber smallholder partnership program.
CNH presented the awards July 16 in Turin at its annual CNH Industrial Global Supplier Advisory Council Meeting.
Michelin described active demand management as a process launched to increase its capacity to integrate customers' needs with its supply chain process.
The award also recognized Michelin's support to grow in new markets, its innovative products and the long-term relationship between the two companies to meet the agricultural challenges of farmers.
CNH evaluates its major suppliers through key performance criteria such as relationship, quality, supply chain and reliability, Michelin said. The program promotes continuous and mutual improvement to reinforce sustainable partnership.
The award comes a few weeks after CNH's New Holland Agriculture brand announced it would begin outfitting its tractors, combine harvesters and grape harvesters with Michelin tires built with the firm's Ultraflex low ground pressure technologies.
Pirelli's first award was for the “biomass boiler house” project at its plant in Campinas, Brazil, that involved designing a boiler that combusts biomass instead of gas, therefore providing both environmental and financial benefits.
The energy savings and emissions reduction prompted Pirelli to look at using the technology at another of its plants in Brazil.
The second Pirelli award was for its “natural rubber small holder partnership” program in Indonesia, which aims to help farmers improve their production and encourage sustainability, as well as including a social component addressed at raising the quality of education for the farmers' children.
Pirelli's partner in the project is Kirana Megatara, the largest Indonesian producer of natural rubber.